The Future at Galaxy Toys, Inc. Implementation and Evaluation

Controlling and coordinating management functions are essential to organizations' ability to accomplish the objectives set out in their strategic plans. Managers coordinate and distribute personnel to them. Both avoid deviations which may impact corporations' ability to achieve their goals. Galaxy Inc. must decide the best way to organize and monitor its resources to achieve its established goals and objectives. The two principles are analysed and applied in the following pages. It starts off by discussing the question of organization and the aspect of control. It concludes with guidelines for the company's long-term planning process.The critical functions of managers can be grouped into four functions planning, leading, organizing, and controlling although several literature also incorporate staffing. This section will focus on the managerial task of organizing. It is the second activity after business executives have created a plan. For its capacity to advance or hinder the plans of firms, the organizing function is the most critical function. Thus, it is responsible for the success or failure of any planning by the managers. Managers spend time developing strategies and plans to aid enterprises grow, but they can only be useful if they organize resources, for instance, employees in an organization in a way that allows the firm to benefit from their individual knowledge and talents through a collaborative environment.Like planning, managers should design and implement the organizing role meticulously because its outcome will determine the organizational structure. According to the Management Study Guide (n.da), organizing enables managers to outline the role positions, the jobs that a role carries, and the coordination of authority and responsibility. It is also essential as it determines the way information will flow within an organization. An organization where the managers exercise their organizing role responsibly allows it to establish efficient operating procedures and eases decision making enabling the firm to accomplish the goals created in its plans. As a result, the managers of businesses must consider the various responsibilities and functions carefully and allocate resources appropriately to ensure a functional structure.Organizing demands that the manager determines how to share resources and arrange employees according to the requirements of a chosen plan so that a business achieves its goals. For the business executives to perform the function adequately, they must identify the roles and responsibilities that are needed to complete particular actions. They must make decisions concerning the duties and responsibilities of a specific job as well as determine how the responsibilities should be performed (Barnett, n.d). After deciding the roles and responsibilities of an individual job position, the next step is to assign the work. In this case, the managers have to find the right person for the job. They may do so by hiring from outside the company (which explains the inclusion of this responsibility as a managerial function by several authors) or looking for suitable individuals within the organization. Seeking and finding a qualified requires strategic human resource management. The idea of strategic human resource is also crucial to ensuring that organizations maintain the right people for a specific job position. Highly dynamic and turbulent business environments confront organizations making it vital for them to hire and keep flexible, relentless, and active workers who can deal with market conditions. Strategic management of employees permits the managers of enterprises to acquire resourceful staff who can extricate organizations from problems and scenarios that appear insoluble (Lengnick-Hall, Beck, & Lengnick-Hall, 2011, p. 256). As a result, businesses can remain resilient despite the changing business setting that threatens to hinder them from achieving their plans. In this case, the managers must perform the organizing function correctly to ensure they have the right people holding the precise roles and responsibilities in a company.Once the managers have established the duties and responsibilities of a particular job and identified the correct people to take the positions, they must coordinate the activities of the various individuals and departments in a company to perform the plan. Each employee in the organization must know his or her responsibilities in the firm to prevent confusion, frustration, and inefficiency. Each person must comprehend the role and responsibilities that a specific position carries but also understand that the activities involved in that job are a part of the more extensive operations of a business that will help it to realize its goals as set in its strategic plan. Without such comprehension, managers will have difficulties directing the workers making it difficult for them to achieve the aims. The personnel of a company should perform the duties and responsibilities in their job positions with input from other persons to enable a firm drive its goals.In this case, the business executives must pursue the development of a collaborative environment within the business. One thing that they must remember is that realizing teamwork in companies is a long-term process (Beyerlein et al., 2003, p.51). Several principles should guide the creation of the collaborative environment in the workplace. The laws are focusing the teamwork to realize business goals, aligning the firm's support systems to promote employee ownership, articulating and enforcing rules, exploiting the areas where workers show convergence and divergence, managing tradeoffs, creating standards for the way workers discuss, dialogue and share information, ensuring individual accountability, aligning authority, decision-making and information, treating teamwork as a disciplined process, and designing and promoting flexibility within the company. Managers who implement the ten principles ensure a higher capacity to achieve the goals of an enterprise.Lastly, the managers are responsible for the allocation of resources in the organizing function. People will need funds and equipment to help them in their roles and responsibilities to drive the companies towards their goals. Therefore, the managers must assess the resources required for a person to fulfill his or her job function and provide them. Most organizations face competing demands for the available resources making it critical for the managers to consider the most efficient allocation. Prioritization of needs is the best way for companies to achieve their aims. Managers should assess all the duties and responsibilities and understand their place in the realization of goals. Such comprehension will form the basis for allocating the available resources to achieve the goals the company has identified.Step 6Assessing the goals that the company intends to achieve, it is possible to prioritize the most important as completing the trials for the prototype toys and having QC approve them by October 31, 2017. The goal has the highest priority for two reasons. First, its completion date comes before the other aims. Second, quality assurance to the customers is essential to attracting purchases. As a result, the quality control department must examine the toys to guarantee they meet the needs of the customers. According to the Mind Tools Content Team (n.da), managers make decisions with consideration of all the key factors that affect a plan. Yu must decide to start the production of the new toys, and quality assurance is a critical component as it can affect the marketability of the toys. Thus, the company must commence by passing the toys through the QC department before the other goals. The different intentions can follow the ranking given below.Begin the production 1.5 million toys by January 2018By May 31, 2018 every plant to produce 375,000 toys Beginning June 2018 shipment to customers will start.For each of the goals, managers must perform several tasks to enable them to accomplish the activities. The tasks that the managers have to perform are given under each goal below.Prototype toy trials to be completed and accepted by QC before October 31, 2017.Designing the prototypes to identify material needsCreating the initial prototype for and transferring them for approval by the QC departmentEvaluation of human resource needs within the production departmentsAssessing the production costs for individual departmentsExamination of floor layout to determine the most effective production system Begin production of 1.5 million toys before January 2018Allocation of production budgets that will enable production of toysHiring print operators for the 3D printing processPurchase conveyor lines with 100-foot clearance for printers and forkliftsPurchase four upgraded printers at approximately $1500 per computerBuy computers for the production departmentsEach plant should make 375,000 toys before May 31, 2018Allocation of physical, human resources and money as required by each unitDescription of duties and responsibilities of each person in the production departmentAllocation of resources to people in the production departmentDevelopment of cost control measures to ensure production expenses remain within the anticipated levels Assessment of the effectiveness of the activities and allocation done in the departmentCustomers to start getting shipments in June 2018.Analysis of risks that could affect delivery by this dateDevelopment of risk mitigation proceduresPlanning the supply chain for the toys to the marketAcquisition of transportation means, for example, trucks to deliver toys to the marketPacking and transportation of the final product to the marketPart TwoStep 7The primary reason for a reduction in the morale of the personnel in the organization is that the workers are afraid the increased efficiency occasioned by the new machines will make them redundant. Thus, the firm will no longer require their services which will make them unemployed. Change in an organization is a complex issue hence the development of the concept of change management. Various problems, such as the fear of the unknown, can make staff in organizations apprehensive of change. The result of the concern is often lower motivation to perform duties. Workers react to the implementation of reform negatively driving their productivity downwards.For Yu to motivate the employees and maintain production levels on schedule for the existing contracts and the present project, the manager needs to adopt systems thinking. Systems thinking is a way of creating models to encourage the comprehension of happenings, patterns of behaviors, and the underlying reasons responsible for particular habits (Bellinger, 2004). The approach will guide Yu to realize the fear among the employees due to the introduction of the new machines. After identifying the reasons, Yu can engage the workers to reassure them of their value in the company. The specific action to achieve the goal is to hold meetings with workers in the various departments. The sessions should focus on allowing the personnel to raise their issues. After the meetings, Yu should develop ways to develop the workers to facilitate their professional and personal growth. Application of theories, for instance, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is one way for the organization to maintain a motivated workforce.Part ThreeStep 8The table can be viewed as a part of the organization's balanced scorecard for the period it has been making the toys. Thus, the data are key performance indicators (KPIs) of the business. KPIs show progress towards the desired outcome (Balanced Scorecard Institute, n.d). In this case, the standards are the preferred results while the actual results display deviations. Any figure that goes beyond what the managers had planned indicates that the managers have to intervene by increasing the level of control to ensure the performance of the various aspects of the business remains within the expected levels. Since the indicators in the table vary from the standard, it is beneficial for the manager to increase the level of control to ensure employs use the resources and perform tasks as required to remain in the planned level.The table shows that the company has problems with the control function as several of the elements have surpassed the standard results. For example, the typical cost is 5.56. However, the cost of the various branches exceeds this standard, notably Dayton and Toledo requiring improvements. Huntsville and White Plains are also close to the average hence the need for more control. The standard production time is also an issue as Juarez and Dayton give higher times necessitating interventions. Regarding quality control, all the branches have challenges with maintaining the required quality, and the training time for all the branches have gone beyond the average. Shipping problems and total production are minor hence the managers have good control of these activities. Nevertheless, the 3D problems are high in Toledo and Dayton, which shows the need for interventions from the managers.Step 10Corrective action means developing and implementing measures supposed to return the performance of the different branches into the range established as a standard for the various aspects. It involves identifying problems that have caused the issue, deciding on the needed actions to counter the challenges, and implementing the changes to realize the intended goals. Therefore, the manager controls the performance using information collected from the organization rather than making guesses. The information can help the managers to make decisions on the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the different approaches used to address the challenges.The corrective action that the manager can take is to review the processes and identify weaknesses that could have resulted in the deviations. Additionally, the manager can decide to employ the agile project management technique to improve the outcomes. According to the Mid Tool Content Team (n.db), the agile project management has a flexible approach where individuals work in small bursts in functioning releases testing each against specific needs. The same technique can be used to control the elements. The managers can implement small sections of the aspects and test them against the standards to identify improvements and challenges. They can then implement those that lead to success while eliminating issues that bring problems.Controlling and long-term planning in organizations are closely related. Due to the dynamic nature of business environments, unforeseen incidents will occur, and they affect the capacity to plan. Controlling helps the situation (Management Study Guide, n.db). When done correctly, it gives an incentive for planning. It also ensures that a business increases its potential to achieve its goals by reducing the possibility of identified risks happening.The recommendations that Keith should take to the long-term planning meeting are listed below.Consider ways to increase employees’ motivation by addressing their fears Enhance the control of various aspects to achieve set standardsPromote professional and individual growth to improve employee retention or reduce turnover ratesEach of these recommendations affects the long-term strategic planning of Galaxy. Increasing the level of motivation will raise the willingness of workers to go beyond their duties to employ their skills and knowledge to their responsibilities. Autonomy in performing obligations will allow the workers to formulate suitable approaches (Gaines & Wilson, 2004). The outcome will be more productive workers who can boost the performance of the company in the long-term. Increased control of the aspects identified in the production results will help to reduce deviations improving the capacity of the organization to achieve its goals. Finally, greater personal and career growth to retain workers will enhance knowledge management by reducing the number of people who leave the firm. In this way, it can continue using the skills and information the workers possess and reduce training costs to boost its performance. ReferencesBalanced Scorecard Institute (n.d). Balanced scorecard basics. Retrieved from http://www.balancedscorecard.org/BSC-Basics/About-the-Balanced-ScorecardBarnett, T. (n.d). Management functions. Retrieved from http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Log-Mar/Management-Functions.html#ixzz411wrnCRJBellinger, G. (2004). Systems thinking: A disciplined approach. Retrieved from http://www.systems-thinking.org/stada/stada.htmBeyerlein, M., Freedman, S., McGee, C. & Moran, L. (2003), The ten principles of collaborative organizations. Journal of Organizational Excellence. DOI: 10.1002/npr.10067Gaines, L. & Wilson, A. (2004). Leading and motivating as a manager. Retrieved from http://cohesion.rice.edu/campusservices/humanresources/emplibrary/Leading%20and%20motivating%20as%20a%20manager.pdfLengnick-Hall, C. A., Beck, T. B. & Lengnick, L. M. (2011). Developing a capacity for organizational resilience through strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 21, 243-255.Management Study Guide (n.da). Organizing function of management. Retrieved from http://www.managementstudyguide.com/organizing_function.htmManagement Study Guide (n.db). Relationship between planning and controlling. Retrieved from http://www.managementstudyguide.com/relationship-planning-controlling.htmMind Tools Content Team (n.da). How to make decisions. Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_00.htmMind Tools Content Team (n.db). Agile project management. Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/agile-project-management.htm